Letters to the Editor: November 17, 2017

Cartoon misses point

Comics like the Einstein one you displayed in last week’s Viewpoints show the typical kind of ignorance of many people, including your newspaper for running it.

The comic implies that by making more gun laws we will be safer, but continuing to make no new laws and hoping the gun violence just goes away is insanity. Pretty straightforward — that is, if you consider laws as the lead action to change people’s behavior.

How is it you come to that conclusion? Could there not be other things to consider?

How about the decline of Christianity in America, and the morals that used to be taught, correlating with increased violence and disorder? Guns have been around a long time, but people have changed.

John Adams, our second president, said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

So, if we want to leave religion and morals behind, we will need to control everyone by stricter and stricter laws. If people are not controlled within by inner convictions, which religion does, then they will have to be increasingly controlled by external forces. If we continue down the road to a godless society, we will find that insanity has only just begun.

Darren Nettrouer

McMinnville

Asleep at the switch

Is anybody home at City Hall?

I emailed Mayor Scott Hill and Councilor Alan Ruden three times each. Neither of them had the courtesy to even acknowledge my concern.

Aren’t public servants supposed to serve? At the end of my block is a public nuisance that poses both a health and safety risk. The residence has severe burn damage, and there are more than a dozen vehicles around the house.

It is also littered with trash and is a terrible eyesore. I am sure that McMinnville has laws to address such concerns. So why am I being ignored? These public figures know where to find you if they want more money to fund their agendas.

I bet if the problem was living next to them that something would be done. Instead, the city government seems to be more interested in its own agenda. Evidently the danger of plastic bags is more important than human life.

McMinnville used to be business friendly; now we force people to buy bags that were once free against the will of the merchant and the public. In addition, businesses have to replace signs that were put in legally at their own expense.

These moves are supposed to attract business and shoppers? More people are going out of town so that they can get service when they shop. It might be best if our city government wakes up and starts serving its people instead of trying to save the world.

Robert McClure

McMinnville

Pardon all turkeys

President Trump is getting his pardon pen ready as the Mueller investigation starts indicting his associates. This Wednesday, he plans to practice on two very innocent Minnesota turkeys.

The other 244 million turkeys killed in the United States this year have not been so lucky. They were raised in crowded sheds filled with toxic fumes. Their beaks and toes were clipped to prevent stress-induced aggression. At 16 weeks of age, slaughterhouse workers cut their throats and dump them in boiling water to remove their feathers.

Now for the good news. Per capita consumption of turkeys is down by a whopping 34 percent from a 1996 high of 303 million, as one-third of our population is actively reducing meat consumption. Our supermarkets carry a rich variety of convenient, delicious, healthful plant-based meat products, including several oven-ready roasts.

This Thanksgiving holiday, as we give thanks for life and good fortune, let’s also skip the gratuitous violence and grant our own pardon to an innocent animal.

Milo Nakamura

McMinnville

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Comments

Bob

Way to go City Hall - the neighborhood in the above article now has had its first rat sitings. Let's wait until somebody gets bit, a pet is killed, or disease is spread before we do anything!

12:02 pm - Sat, November 18 2017

Bizzyditchaz

Darren - One does not NEED religion to be a good person. Quite frankly, our perverted distortion in current Christianity is more the problem. Christianity couldn't be further AWAY from the teachings of Jesus Christ!!!!

10:11 am - Mon, November 20 2017

Mudstump

Darren Nettrouer - The Christian right left religion and morals behind when they voted overwhelmingly for Trump. In my mind, they lost all credibility and showed their "so-called" religious convictions to be hollow and meaningless. If you want to restore morality in our society.... don't vote for a man who has no moral compass as our "leader."

09:42 am - Mon, November 27 2017

VE

The large number of Evangelical Pastors supporting Former Judge Moor in Alabama say everything about the state of the loss of religion. Can anyone in their right mind think Jesus would approve?